With the amount of data that is being stored and used in the systems, almost every user wants to have a complete back-up of all the precious data present in the system. But operating systems including the Windows 7 instead of their nice built-in features of backup doesn’t support network or multiple methods for backup. So, for this user needs a third-party utility or a method which can make sure that all the data remain secured by backing it up to some other drive in some other system or on some other servers.

CrashPlan is a freeware that allows the user to backup its complete data to an external hard drive which may be present on some other computer, or to the cloud, and that too very quickly and easily. Although as said earlier Windows also comes up with this kind of backup software but it is lot more complex as compared to the CrashPlan which is a very small and easy to use utility and that too with the complete reliability. It offers a number of options for backing up the data present in the system. So, instead of using removable media each time to take a complete backup, this utility offers up a different alternative.

In order to install this smart freeware utility, just download the application from the CrashPlan website whose link is given below and simply double click on the installation package to install it. The CrashPlan website also offers easy instructions that can be followed to get the software installed easily even in different OS other then windows. After installing the software, you may observe that it automatically selects the most common folders and files to start backing up. For this also, you just have to click the Start Backup button available in the interface and this smart desktop client will start backing up to the CrashPlan Central servers. If you want to change the location or simply want some more control over your backup then you can also mention what folders and files you want to backup and also the location where you want them to be stored.

Advertisement

As mentioned you can back up your data to CrashPlan servers but if you have a lot of data to backup then there is one more feature provided by the utility by which you can simply seed the backup by getting a hard drive shipped to you and then sending it back. This not only reduces your bandwidth use but also make the initial backup go much faster than just uploading it over the Internet. One can also categorize the data by storing them to different locations such as, Music to one place, videos to another etc. This can prove to be pretty useful if you want a different backup schedule for different files but on the other hand it adds up an extra layer of confusion for some users. It also provides some other backup features which include items like automatic or scheduled backups, locked file support, etc..

Now once you back up your data, then next important thing which should be kept in mind is how to restore it when needed asrestoring your data is just as important as backing it up. This smart utility offers different ways to restore your data, which are, through the client, through the web and through a hard drive or DVD. Restoring the data from local backup locations will be managed by the desktop client itself. The reason for this is that all local backups that are made are encrypted and compressed so copying files out of the backup directly is not possible and hence requires the desktop client to do so. So, you just need to download and install the desktop client if your computer crashes and you need to restore your data. So, for that all you need is to remember the account password.